At this point, I think we all have a fairly solid understanding of the appeal of a gold watch. The heft, the rarity, and the luster of gold all appeal to our reptile brains in ways that are almost innate. Zach Weiss broke it down here back in 2021, and in the nearly two years since that article was conceived, we?ve only grown more gold-curious as a team. But as much as we talk about a growing appreciation for gold, there?s another tangentially related segment of watchmaking that doesn?t get nearly the same level of attention, at least from enthusiasts. But a new watch from Oris made me rethink my relationship to these watches. 

No, I?m not talking about watches with Muppet-clad date displays. I?m talking about diamonds, an entirely different level of opulence. In a modern context, watches that have been set with diamonds most frequently fall into one of two categories: watches marketed exclusively toward women, or the completely iced out custom jobs that you sometimes see on red carpets, music videos, and in New York City?s diamond district. With the new Aquis Date Diamonds, Oris is asking us to rethink the stone by incorporating them into a watch that?s truly sporty, and also by making them accessible.  Oris goes about this by using lab-grown, as opposed to mined, diamonds. Lab-grown diamonds have increased in popularity in recent years as manufacturing techniques have gotten better and better, delivering stones that are identical optically and chemically to di...